Ford EcoSport
President and Chief Executive Officer of Ford Motors, Alan Roger Mulally, poses next to the newly-launched EcoSport.Reuters

American automaker Ford is reportedly set to launch its much-anticipated EcoSport SUV in India on 11 June.

The Autojunction.in website citing sources reported that the launch of Ford EcoSport SUV has been scheduled for 11 June. The car which first made its appearance at the Auto Expo in 2012 has been anticipated for quite a while now. Ford is yet to confirm the aforementioned date. But previous indications and recently announced bookings of the SUV points to the launch of the car in the near future.

Earlier this week, Ford India through its official Facebook page has confirmed that pre-bookings for the much awaited SUV will begin in June. Here too, the company maintained utmost secrecy by not giving out the exact date. As the wait for EcoSport launch continues, Ford is keen on giving out details of its SUV. It unveiled the emergency alert technology at the Ford EcoSport media drive in Goa. EcoSport will be the first vehicle in India to have this kind of emergency alert technology.

The feature which works in conjunction with Ford's SYNC system will automatically alert emergency services in cases of accidents. The Emergency Assistance feature, which will be connected to the driver's mobile phone via Bluetooth, sends a critical voice message directly to emergency operators when the vehicle meets with an accident. The message is triggered when an airbag is deployed or the emergency fuel pump shutoff is activated.

The car is expected to come in four trims - Ambiente, Trend, Titanium and Titanium Optional. The top-end variants which are powered by the 1.5-litre petrol engine will come with a six-speed automatic transmission, while the Ambiente and Trend will have the 5-speed manual transmission (MT). The base model of the EcoSport Ambient will lack safety features like ABS and airbags, but will have manual air conditioning, manual rear windows and Bluetooth audio system.

Regarding its price, EcoSport SUV which is expected to be pitted against Renault Duster, Mahindra Quanto and Premier Rio is expected to fall in the ₹5.9 - ₹6 lakh brackets and the high-end variants in the ₹9 lakh range.